


Once a Soldier

by viceroyvonmutini



Series: LadiesofPOI-Kara Stanton (B) [4]
Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-30
Updated: 2015-05-30
Packaged: 2018-04-02 01:34:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4040623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viceroyvonmutini/pseuds/viceroyvonmutini
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kara branches out into freelance, but she's never really been very good at taking orders.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once a Soldier

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: listen
> 
> Because I love this pairing. Because there needs to be more of this pairing. Because I have been given this fabulous excuse to explore these two and I'm not about to waste it. 
> 
> This was meant to be smut so I might post an additional 'deleted scene' chapter later if I have the time/if it's wanted but for now this is the completed work.

Kara moved through the crowd seamlessly, grabbing a flute of champagne from a waiter’s tray. The music travelled softly over the guests as they mingled and perused the artwork, muttering incessantly about Post-Modernism and chatting loudly about Fauvism.

‘You fit quite nicely in this crowd,’ remarked the electronically altered voice in her ear.

‘You could have at least picked a place with decent art.’

‘I offered you a job. I never said you would like it.’

‘And any chance we could get rid of the voice modulation because that’s going to get annoying real fast,’ muttered Kara, eyes scanning the room over her glass.

‘Find the target,’ instructed the voice with little compromise in the tone.

Kara took a sip from her glass.

‘Yes _ma’am_ ,’ she muttered, ‘and what am I here for?’

‘Find the target, swipe the card.’

‘Right.’

‘And keep the com-link open.’

Kara raised an eyebrow as her eyes browsed a rather feeble attempt at Cubism.

‘Do you always keep an eye on your hires?’

‘I didn’t pay you to ask questions did I Kara?’

‘No you paid me to be good at my job-‘

‘And you assured me you were the best. So. Go and do your job.’

Kara frowned but said nothing.

It didn’t take her long to find the target-the owner of the gallery, Alexander Vane- as her eyes scanned the top floor. He stood at the top of the modern staircase leant upon the metal railing entertaining a crowd of guests simply _fascinated_ by his achievements.

‘You’re sure he keeps the card on him?’

‘Breast pocket of his suit.’

‘That purple velvet monstrosity?’

‘I never said taste was his strong point.’

‘You never said anything about him at all.’

‘I pretty sure I paid you not to ask questions, but remind me.’

The tone was light but firm and Kara sighed. Decima had given her free reign until they decided to have some use for her and she had grown accustomed to not following someone else’s orders. This little side project of hers to earn a little more money was reminding her just why she didn’t tend to do this sort of thing.

Still, the woman had contacted her via anonymous email and was apparently well connected, highly recommended, and thorough. So thorough in fact that Kara hadn’t even been able to trace where she was based, what her name was or…well anything of any significance that might indicate who exactly she was working for, what the hell she was doing and how exactly she found Kara.

The money was good: the mantra Kara ran through her head as she approached her target. In fact it had been wired anonymously almost immediately upon acceptance, and judging by the way the woman apparently hacked her account she was good with computers. But the money was there and that’s all that mattered; the woman had given her everything she needed to complete the job with little hassle and that was something Kara appreciated. She was good.

But god she got on Kara’s nerves.

Kara kept her distance at first, looking for some way to insert herself into this man’s life.

‘Spill your drink on him.’

‘Are you telling me how to do my job?’

‘I’m providing you with accurate intelligence enabling you to better complete your mission to my satisfaction Kara.’

‘You’re telling me how to do my job.’

‘Are you going to listen?’

‘Do I have a choice?’

‘Of course.’

The flippant nature of her words grated on Kara not for any particular reason other than she was infuriatingly right.

‘Fine.’

‘I knew you’d see it my way.’

She was never doing this again, thought Kara as she approached the target from a distance, calculating the optimum angle of approach to ensure maximum spill damage.

She couldn’t work in these conditions.

It was nothing different from how she usually operated she knew that- objectively speaking- but never had she encountered someone who was so…fundamentally infuriating.

Kara lined herself up with the target before beginning her casual approach. She was going to find out who this woman was, how she operated, what her goal was and then she was going to shoot her in the head for no other particular reason than Kara didn’t like her.

Decima had done little to readjust her dubious moral compass.

Violent maiming circled in her head, methods to trap the mysterious electronic voice in her ear as she checked the target, took hold of his jacket and swiped the card.

‘Fifth floor. There’s an elevator down the corridor to your right. You’ll need the card to gain access.’

‘Where am I going?’ asked Kara, following the directions.

‘Up.’

Kara frowned. She should have expected that.

The elevator doors shut as Kara stood alone.

‘It’s the second office on the left.’

Kara didn’t reply, stepping out onto the deserted floor and finding the correct office.

‘What is it with this modern art?’ she muttered, glancing sideways as the stone sculpture that hovered somewhere between shriveled penis and anthropomorphic cucumber.

‘I’m disappointed you can’t appreciate the finer nuances of the piece,’ echoed the voice in her ear.

‘You didn’t pay me to appreciate the art,’ mocked Kara.

The voice laughed. With the modifications it sounded more like a screeching techno beat.

‘You’re learning.’

Learning? What the hell was she? A fucking dog?

‘You still have that flash drive I gave you? Plug it into the computer.’

Kara sat down at the pristine white iMac before her.

‘It’s locked.’

‘Put the stick in Kara,’ repeated the voice in what sounded like a condescending tone and Kara glared.

She did as instructed, watching as the screen came alive and swiftly unlocked.

‘Good things happen when you listen to me Kara,’ sung the voice.

‘For me or for you?’

‘Both. Technically speaking.’

Kara watched as the screen flashed with windows and files were copied.

‘I presume you have access to their closed mainframe?’

‘They said you were perceptive,’ replied the voice absentmindedly.

Kara’s eyes followed the screen as best she could. She wasn’t exactly a tech wiz but she knew enough. She knew enough, she thought carelessly as her fingers drifted to the keyboard, to do some digging into this woman.

Kara grinned with barely repressed victory as her quick examination of the files showed a small weakness in the transfer that allowed her trace in a surprisingly simple process where the files were being sent, or more accurately: an IP address.

She quickly noted down the information before removing her tracks with the limited knowledge she had. She leant back in the chair, watching as the screen flashed a few more times before powering down.

‘Remove the stick. Destroy it.’

‘Is that it?’

‘Yes Kara that’s it. The rest of the money will be wired to your account once the drive is destroyed.’

Kara tore out her earpiece and crushed it under her heel as she walked out of the office to rejoin the partygoers downstairs. She made a swift exit, turning down a dark back alley and shooting the flash drive before pulling out her phone.

Inputting the IP address she found the woman’s location with little problem. She felt a little smug as she placed her phone on the ground, crushing that under her heel with little remorse before heading to a nearby hotel.

She had been underestimated. Kara Stanton did not enjoy being underestimated. Kara Stanton also didn’t enjoy smug electro-dubstep voices in her ear ordering her around but that was adamantly not the reason she was tracing this woman. She was not that petty.

The hotel was the dark, pay-by-cash-no-questions-asked type. The less-than-subtle gun pointed at the receptionist quickly told her the floor she was looking for.

Kara chose the dim stairs over the perhaps not entirely functional elevator.

Renting out an entire floor was a rookie-mistake, mused Kara gun poised at the ready as she stepped out onto the fourth floor: the easiest way to alert a trained operative to your location.

Kara partly wished she had kept her phone on her to deliver the precise location but quickly shook the thought away as she trod careful and alert down the badly decorated corridor.

Just once could someone be found in the Ritz? Just once.

Kara headed for the penultimate door on the right and began there. She shot the door lock without preamble, silencer muffling the otherwise loud sound and carefully pushed open the door.

‘I must say I’m almost impressed,’ complimented the woman, seemingly unfazed by the gun now pointed at her head.

She sat at a small wooden table propped against the wall and Kara caught her side-profile as the woman remained transfixed on the computer screen before her.

‘Almost?’

This earned her a condescending look.

‘Give me more credit: a small breach during a file transfer? An idiot’s mistake. I do my research Stanton. I knew you would come running when I called.’

Kara ground her jaw.

‘I’m not a dog.’

The woman shrugged non-committedly and Kara’s grip on her gun tightened.

‘And you know nothing about me.’

‘I know enough,’ the woman stood up, ‘I know more than you’re comfortable with.’

‘I don’t know whether you’ve noticed but I have a gun pointed at your head,’ snarled Kara.

‘And yet you don’t _seem_ to be firing it.’

Her employer walked towards her, stopping just out of reach of the muzzle of the gun.

‘Watch me.’

‘Empty threats: you wouldn’t have tried to find me if you weren’t at least a little interested.’

‘I came to find you to kill you.’

‘You came to find me to get intelligence.’

Kara tensed further if that were even possible.

‘Relax Kara I’m not going to kill you.’

‘Oh good because that was my worry, when I have the gun pointed at you.’

‘I just wanted to talk.’

‘Then talk.’

‘Not going to shoot me?’ sung the woman.

Kara fired a shot next to the woman’s left ear and she turned with a smile as the bullet imbedded itself into the opposing wall.

‘I’m going to have to pay for that,’ came the casual remark.

‘Start talking or I put one in your head.’

She turned back to Kara.

‘You can call me Root.’

‘False name.’

‘Astute as always. I did my research. You tried to do yours. I think we might get along quite well.’

‘What makes you think that: the gun pointed at your head or my dazzling personality?’

‘Your stunning good looks.’

Root’s grin turned predatory and she gently put her hand on the barrel of the gun, pushing it away lightly and stepping forward.

Kara didn’t move to retreat.

‘What are you doing?’

Root angled her head, looking the ever so slightly taller Kara in the eye.

‘Testing a theory,’ she mused lightly.

The grip on her gun tightened and Root felt it, her hand still resting on the weapon, and she smirked.

‘Kara relax,’ cooed Root and Kara did anything but.

‘Fuck. Off.’

‘No.’

Kara moved to raise her gun but Root pushed it down and Kara didn’t really have time to think about how surprisingly strong the slim woman was before Root brought round her other hand and relieved Kara of her weapon, chucking it into the corner of the room left hand resting on her wrist.

Kara made to punch and Root ducked, letting go of her wrist in the process and Kara used the opening to knee the woman in the stomach and clamp a firm hand round her neck pulling her up into a standing position before spinning them both around and slamming Root to the wall.

The grip around Root’s neck tightened and Kara knew it would be starting to hurt, that each breath drawn would be a labour to the woman and yet her expression remained the same all-too smug smirk.

‘Give me one reason not to snap your neck.’

Root brought her left hand up gripping Kara’s arm tightly and Kara tensed for a fight, but rather than pushing it away Root pushed Kara’s hand further into her neck. Kara’s nails began to pinch deeper at Root’s skin and Kara could feel the undulation of Root’s throat as she spoke.

‘Don’t snap my neck Kara,’ she choked out, still managing to lace her words with flirtation, ‘but by all means I do like it rough.’

Kara frowned as she noted the glint in Root’s eyes and the dark pupils that Kara could do nothing but relate to.

‘You could stand here and try to kill me,’ rasped Root, ‘or we can do something a little more fun.’

‘You’re fucked up.’

Root’s smirk widened and Kara’s grip tightened but not a flash of fear was detected in Root’s gaze even as her breath grew shallow and sharp.

‘So are you.’

Kara didn’t like the way Root could still speak and speak with nonchalance like she still held all the cards, like she knew she was right made all the worse by the fact that she was. It was something Kara didn’t enjoy feeling: the uncomfortable notion that Root still held something she did not.

Kara didn’t respond with words but it registered in the back of her mind that she might have been doing precisely what the woman wanted as she roughly captured Root’s lips.

Her hand loosened slightly from Root’s throat and Root took that moment to lift Kara’s arm away before pushing Kara back with her body to the surprise of Kara as her back hit the opposite wall with a solid thud.

Root pulled Kara’s arms above her head, pressing them into the grim wallpaper and Kara bit on Root’s lip in protest earning her another push against the wall.

Root pulled away slightly, meeting Kara’s defiant angry gaze with one of mirth and Kara pushed against Root’s hold, the woman barely managing to retain control.

‘Please stop fighting Kara,’ chided the woman lightly, ‘it’s so much more fun when you just listen.’

 

* * *

 

Consciousness fell on Kara like bricks as her eyes shot open. Her body was tense and her shoulders sore and everything throbbed in a not entirely unpleasant way.

She turned her head but her body wouldn’t follow the movement and suddenly the ache in her shoulders became the focus of her attention as she tilted her head back and caught the glint of metal in the corner of her eye.

She tugged at the restraints, pushing forward until the metal of the cuffs bit into already chaffed skin painfully.

‘Good morning Kara,’ echoed a familiar voice through the tinny speaker of a phone resting on the bedside table.

Kara’s head snapped towards the sound.

‘What the fuck?’

There was no response, the sound of distant wind howling through the bad speaker and Kara judged Root long gone from the room, along with any chance Kara had of getting some answers.

‘Get the fuck back here and cut me loose,’ hissed Kara, tugging at her restraints in a futile effort to escape.

‘No can do Kara,’ came the distracted reply, ‘the key is next to the phone. I trust you can get yourself out.’

Kara thrashed upon the bed in rage in an effort she knew was useless but was too furious to care.

‘Calm down Kara.’

‘Calm down my ass: who the hell do you think you are?’

‘No one important. We had fun didn’t we Kara? I thought so. Don’t try to find me-but I know you won’t. You’re so very good at taking orders after all.’

Kara scowled.

‘Fuck you.’

Root chuckled.

‘Goodbye Kara.’

The phone clicked shut and Kara was left with her thoughts, wondering what exactly she had done to deserve this level of regret and what exactly was the best method to eviscerate a certain brunette.


End file.
